IEEE Std 802.3Az™—2010, the “Energy-Efficient Ethernet” standard, includes techniques configured to conserve energy in networked devices. Among other things, the standard provides for transitioning a network controller's transmitter to a tower power state (“low power idle state”) during periods of no or low activity. Intelligent platform management provides for monitoring of platform hardware and signaling platform health to a remote system, e.g., system administrator, using side-band and/or out-of-band communication. A baseboard management controller (BMC) is configured to monitor platform health and provide health-related information to the platform's network controller for buffering and transmission to the remote system.
When a network controller's transmitter is in the tow power state and there are packets to transmit, the network controller may be prompted to transition from the idle state to the active state. This transition time may be relatively lengthy. If the BMC sends packets to the network controller while the network controller is in a low power state, the network controller may need to buffer several packets while waiting for its transmitter to transition from idle to active. This may result in a relatively large buffer being allocated which may be relatively expensive. Similarly, if a link coupling two networked devices is in flow control, so that the link speed is significantly reduced, a relatively large number of packets may likewise need to be buffered.
Although the following Detailed Description will proceed with reference being made to illustrative embodiments, many alternatives, modifications, and variations thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art.